Teaching Activity
The aim of my teaching activity will be to look at the impacts of bush walking on the environment.
I would begin the activity by mentioning how popular the park being within a day’s drive of around half Australia’s population resulting in up to 100,000 visitors in the snow free months of the year.
To demonstrate the impact of trampling on the environment I could get each member of the group to represent a few thousand visitors on a path and outline the impacts as the hypothetical number of walkers increased on the path.
After the first person walked forward I could mention how the first visible effect of trampling is the death of shrubs and compaction of sphagnum hummocks. Then I can mention how the track becomes muddy in wetter areas resulting in people walking around the mud, expanding the track. I could demonstrate this by having members of the group walk through avoiding where the previous person had walked. I could then mention how in drier areas although trampling doesn’t result in mud, it can result in compacted soil which becomes unable to support vegetation because the number of macro-pores in the soil.
After that activity I can mention how to manage the impact of trampling tracks are hardened to try and localise the impact. The hardened tracks in the park include raised steel mesh walkways, gravel paths, and paved areas. The raised steel mesh walkways have the least impact on vegetation while the gravel and paved tracks have resulted in extensive bare patches as well as exotic species in the area.
The aim of my teaching activity will be to look at the impacts of bush walking on the environment.
I would begin the activity by mentioning how popular the park being within a day’s drive of around half Australia’s population resulting in up to 100,000 visitors in the snow free months of the year.
To demonstrate the impact of trampling on the environment I could get each member of the group to represent a few thousand visitors on a path and outline the impacts as the hypothetical number of walkers increased on the path.
After the first person walked forward I could mention how the first visible effect of trampling is the death of shrubs and compaction of sphagnum hummocks. Then I can mention how the track becomes muddy in wetter areas resulting in people walking around the mud, expanding the track. I could demonstrate this by having members of the group walk through avoiding where the previous person had walked. I could then mention how in drier areas although trampling doesn’t result in mud, it can result in compacted soil which becomes unable to support vegetation because the number of macro-pores in the soil.
After that activity I can mention how to manage the impact of trampling tracks are hardened to try and localise the impact. The hardened tracks in the park include raised steel mesh walkways, gravel paths, and paved areas. The raised steel mesh walkways have the least impact on vegetation while the gravel and paved tracks have resulted in extensive bare patches as well as exotic species in the area.